Study Says Positive Coaching Lights Up Our Brains

Would you rather hear what you can have versus what you can’t? Most of us respond better to positive reinforcement than to that ever-dangling carrot just out of reach.

Neuroscientists agree. In a recent study published in Social Neuroscience, researchers found that a more positive approach to coaching enhanced students’ ability to visualize their future. By asking students where they saw themselves in 10 years (instead of having them focus on their immediate weaknesses and areas of improvement), the researchers found different areas of the volunteers’ brains lit up when scanned. The so-called “positive coaching” group showed brain activity in the following areas:

Visual processing—the area of the brain that is activated when imagining future events

Proactive approach to reaching goals rather than simply reacting to loss or fear

When we look at what’s wrong, instead of looking at what’s right, we get mired down in feelings of despair and dread. But when we shift our focus to what is working, our brains actually respond! We can literally change our world simply by taking a different perspective. It doesn’t change the facts, but it does change how we feel about them.

It’s like that with time, too. If we think we don’t have enough, we’re right because time is actually relative—our sense of time is intimately interwoven with our moods and emotions. If we feel centered and in control of our schedule, we are empowered and more productive. We can accomplish things in quantifiably less time when we are less stressed and more focused.

So let’s concentrate on what’s right about our world instead of looking at what we don’t have. And that dangling carrot? Well, think of it as the driving force that keeps you moving forward, a beacon on your path to what’s next without losing sight of the beauty of where you are now.

P.S. Need to slow down? I just had a chat with Matt Townsend on his radio program about why we need slow more than ever. Have a listen!

The problem with positive psychology is it ignores the positive aspects of the negative and the negative aspects of the positive. Possibility is not defined by the positive or the negative, it is neutral.
Of course people want to feel positive/good/happy etc because it feels better to us - but how useful is a world of happy people who continue to deplete planetary resources in order to maintain their happiness? Who maintain their individual happiness at a cost to the collective? That sounds like 'I'm alright Jack' syndrome.
Equally I'm not suggesting that everybody should be negative/bad/unhappy either.
What I am saying is that both positive and negative co-exist, both positive and negative can be either positive and/or negative.
It is dangerous to to apply too much focus on the positive if this means remaining in ignorance of the negative.

I felt so lonely when everyone follows main stream media, more or less, talking about being positive, encouraging...

At first, I thought that some of those pretty successful professionals don't really believe this none sense. They must have some agenda, or just want to make others happy. So I had some good discussion with some of those at a little deeper level.
To my surprise, they Do think so!
To my bigger surprise, they actually Believe so, when asked why.
Then, not surprisingly, they believe in other popular opinions too, such as inflation is good for economy, free market does not work if government don't regulate it.